The perfect match
by missdeby3
Summary: Seven years have passed since the Fourth Great Ninja War and peace has settled on the Hidden Leaf, making room in a certain Kunoïchi's heart for... Other things. This a post-war Neji and Tenten centred one-shot, focusing on Tenten thoughts as she makes the most significant decision she has ever made. Enjoy.


The perfect match

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" _We are best friends. And you being a woman, I was hoping you could understand me. We don't know the outcome of this war and I refuse to step onto the battlefield with this fear. It's important for you to know this. I could never... Never die peacefully without passing on the legacy of my eyes in their purest, untouched state. Unlike mine_."

"Are you sure about this?"

She was seriously reconsidering her decision to leave her place, this cozy apartment she had been sharing with her strong, lively and body-to-body combat master of a teammate for almost half a decade, now. Over the years, she hadn't been able to get as far as being considered his rival. They weren't even _supposed_ to be compared, for their arts completely differed from one another _._ Soon realising she was simply trying to distract herself from her roommate's loaded question, but more importantly the great significance of her actions to come, she stopped at the entryway, her heeled sandals already on her feet around her knee-high socks that hid themselves under her tight, dark, flower printed silk dress. Draping her thick, fleece lined coat over her shoulders, she turned around to face her longtime friend and shone a dishonestly reassuring smile at him.

"I've come too far, Lee."

The streets were silent. Or maybe she was simply deaf to her surroundings from the noise of her heart aggressively pumping against her ribcage that had managed its way up to her eardrums. It hurt. It felt as if someone was rhythmically beating a set of microscopic hammers into her auditive organs. She stopped, swallowed hard, breathed in, exhaled powerfully and ignored the spy that had been following her for the past three weeks. He was simply doing his job anyway.

Seven years had passed since the Fourth Great War and peace had settled over the Country of Fire's heavy and agitated hearts. Hers too. Dreamily looking around her, she noted the landscape of the Hidden Leaf - now _town -_ had changed dramatically for the least she could say. And though its extravagantly artificially lit streets were cold on this Monday evening, a few days shy of officially entering winter season, she couldn't feel a thing. Her body felt numb; _had been_ feeling numb since the night before. The day she had been fearing had come. They had called her yesterday morning, saying the analysis of her last lab results showed the time was ripe, that she should come in tonight at eight, when all the outpatients of their private day-clinic were long gone, so she could receive the 'attention' and 'gentle care' she deserved.

Their residence had never felt so close to her miserably small flat. Maybe she was just walking really fast, she wondered. As she entered the grounds of the prestigious domain, not a single white-eyed guard held her back. They knew. They were expecting her. Everyone participating in today's event was ready. Except for her. She could've readied her heart for years, she never would've been. She could clearly remember the day she had paid a fortune to one day be able to take on this beautiful challenge. This situation simply didn't reflect what she had expected it to be. She had thought she would've been close to her forties and ready to retire beside the love of her life. Only, she had never been granted to develop such feelings for another individual. Not yet. ' _Maybe romance was never made for me_ ', she murmured as the automatic doors of the medical center opened themselves to her presence. Now she had matured and the wars had ceased, her desire that once seemed far and way ahead of her time, had slowly, almost maliciously traveled to the core of her empty soul. Now she had… this. This was a contract she had accepted with conditions she had meticulously stipulated. An agreement where the Hyuuga would finally see a long forgotten dream come true and she would get to protect and nurture a precious momentum of an accomplished promise she had made more than seven years ago." _You do not have any hereditary abilities. You are wise, physically fit and morally trustworthy. You are the perfect match_ ". She giggled in despair, hoping it would comfort her fright. She wouldn't have imagined he had thought of doing the same as her and an insignificant minority of Hidden Leaf warriors: save their genetic material. She wasn't afraid of loving unconditionally. ' _I already do love you unconditionally'_ , she whispered almost silently. Having been abandoned days after her birth, she simply had never experienced unconditional love _herself_. There was her greatest fear, the fear of not having a sufficient amount of love to offer.

"Alright, you can get undressed, sweetheart."

Nurses always seemed to have that caring, calming tone to their voices. Slipping out of her clothes and briefly shivering to an imaginary slipstream of cold air on her bare skin, she slid her naked body into the surprisingly comfortable hospital bed and closed her eyes as she felt the nurse pierce an intravenous line through the skin of her right hand and smoothly inserted a catheter into the walls of her bladder. As the two specialists of the female reproductive medicine and the clan's leader were outside scrupulously examining the correctness of the documents they were holding, she could hear their names being called a handful of times. Oh how she had missed the sound of his first name. One she herself and most people who had known him had stopped pronouncing for the sake of their heart. Allowing the hypnotic and sedating solution to drip to the marrow of her nervous system, she looked up in worry to the nurse a very last time before having an anaesthesiologist walk in to support her weakening breathing. As expected, only a caress of a voice brushed over her ears and soft hands combed through her unraveled hair.

"Do not fear, Ms. Tenten. The operation theatre is next door. I will be there when you get back and will watch over you tonight. The artificial insemination of the embryo will last fifteen minutes at most. Good luck, my love."

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" _I completely understand you, Neji. One day this wish of yours will come true. You will have a child that will be free of the mark you've been branded with. I promise."_


End file.
